Special Series #6: Gideon- Biblical Characters and How they Finished

Don't get sidetracked as we finish, Gideon is faithful, but watch his story. It's fascinating to me. You know, we begin to see Gideon in Judges six, the angel visits him and gives him a sign where Gideon puts a sacrifice in the rock and the angel brings fire down and takes it all to heaven and gets his attention. He's not expecting God to work this way, but God chooses him for a particular reason, and I want to say he chooses you and me for reasons as well, particularly as we age, for his purposes in life.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:20

Music.

Dr Hal Habecker: 0:27

Welcome again to our finishing well series on aging people. What do you learn from the scriptures if you look at aging people and how they finished? This series is designed to help us think about how we're going to age by learning from characters in the Old Testament and some in the new How did characters in the Bible finish in the end of life and we want to finish? Well, that's why Crawford Lauritz, little statement there, Don't let me drown in shallow water is really an important concept, as always, I start with Robert Browning's little poem Rabbi Ben Ezra grow old along with me. The best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made. It's really important to see God's hand in our own personal development as we age. It's really critical. And one of the things I like about this series is that I want you to see the scriptures for yourself. We'll read a lot of them. I'm trying to summarize some of it, but get into the text for yourself. So you'll see the text a fair amount in these presentations, and that's what I want you to see in Gideon as well. Learning from Gideon, remember the little phrase we use, spiritual failure is never a blowout, but always the result of a slow leak statement by Howard Hendricks, which has captured my mindset. We'll see that in Gideon in our studies today. Don't get sidetracked as we finish, Gideon is faithful, but watch his story. It's fascinating to me. You know, we begin to see Gideon in Judges six, the angel visits him and gives him a sign where Gideon puts a sacrifice in the rock and the angel brings fire down and takes it all to heaven and gets his attention. He's not expecting God to work this way, but God chooses him for a particular reason, and I want to say he chooses you and me for reasons as well, particularly as we age, for his purposes in life. Why has all this happened? He considers himself the least, so he asked for a sign. Here's the text. Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from the ephah of flour, but the meat in the basket, the broth in the pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God said, take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread, then the angel of the Lord vanished from His sight. Always think about that. Wouldn't it be great if God did something miraculous to show us his direction and his will every time well, he's nurturing Gideons faith, and that's a good thing. Secondly, the Lord tells him to tear down his father's idols. He's afraid of doing it by night by day, so he does it by night. That's incredible. Gideon has a hesitant faith. And you know, that's human. That may be like you and me, but God works with him. And Gideon goes in, as we'll see, he tears down the father's idols at night because he's afraid to go during the day. And then he has another test. As you know, he tests God twice more with the wool and the dew, and his gracious as God meets his needs. Isn't it great that God condescends or descends to meet us where we're at, and he always wants to lead us further into his purposes. We could stop just there. I mean, isn't that what we would all wish in our aging years, God lead us like Psalm 90, verse 12, teach us the number our days that we might present you a heart of wisdom living on the edge of God's leadership in our life, whatever age we are. So here is God trying to work with Gideon. To help him grow next. We see him faithful in fighting the Midianites. It's really God's work. You know, I just think of that John 15 five, Jesus says, Without me, you could do nothing. You know, that was true in the Old Testament. It's true in the new it's true in our lives, unless God shows up and works. You know, we're just human energies doing our work in the flesh, and not with God's blessing and strength and power. Remember, the army came up with 32,000 men, and it got reduced to 300 if you're afraid, go home. 10,000 men went home. 97 9700 are sent home because they don't drink with alertness. 300 remain. And of course, the victory was a sword for the Lord and for Gideon, a great victory. And you know, for this, Gideon is included in the hall of faith chapter in Hebrews 1132 way after this great victory, you can imagine the ecstasy in all of Israel, where the Midianites were slain. It's a million man army. They were as the sands of the sea. The men of Israel now want Gideon to be king. Listen closely. This is a fascinating story to me and to all of us. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon ruled over us, both you and your son, also your son's son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I won't rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. You know what a great testimony at face value. That sounds absolutely awesome. And one of the best things we could say, it's not us, but, you know, I don't want to be king and but God will be king over you. Gideon said this to them, then I would request this of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil. Isn't that fascinating from the spoils of beating the Midianites. Gideon now says, Why don't you give me an offering? I don't want to be king, but I'll take the buddy. I'll take the gold for they had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites, and they said, We'll surely give you them. So they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian and besides the neck bands that were on their camels necks. And Gideon takes that gold and he makes it into an ephod and placed it in his city, Oprah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household. Isn't that fascinating? He declines that invitation to be king. He encourages them to keep God as their king, but he wants an offering and makes an ephod out of that gold. There's a picture of what it might have looked like. You remember the ephod was what the high priest wore, and it was a way of communicating with God and to the people where Gideon set up that it became an idol. It was something mystical, and they made it out for themselves, and it became an idol to them, became a snare to Gideon and his household. Now, just think about that. You know, Gideon doesn't want to be king. Had a great victory. God showed him through the different signs, and now he comes, and it's all about me. It's more about me than it is about God. And when it becomes more about me than it is about God, it leads God's people astray. Is that not an amazing insight? So the most important thing in finishing well always is we need to keep that intima intimacy with God, where he knows what we're thinking, what we're doing, and he leads us so it is always an encouragement to others that's a great insight in Gideon. Now let's go on one more point. Gideon has 70 sons. He has one son through a concubine in Shechem and names him. Watch this, Abimelech. Do you know what Abimelech means? My father is king. Now, listen to this. Gideon didn't want to be king. He said, My son's not going to be king. But he names his son, Abimelech, from this concubine and Shechem, and his name means my father's King. How ironic. While he rejected being king, we know that perhaps inwardly he was tempted by that offer, because he names his son Abimelech. It's hard to know all the mode was swirling in his heart, but we get a picture. Of the chaos in his heart through his latter days. That's sad. You know, Gideon is strong man of faith, for Gideon and for the Lord in the fight against the Midianites, but in his last days, he weakens spiritually. How sad. None of his sons follow their dad's life of faith. Isn't that interesting? Perhaps because he sent them mixed signals in his life. The story continues now. Gideon had 70 sons who were his direct descendants. For he had many wives, his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him his son, and he named him Abimelech. We saw that Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father, Joash in Oprah as the abyssites. And then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel played the harlot with the Baals and made Baal bereath their God. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side, nor did they show kindness to the household of jerubal, that is Gideon, and according with the good that he had done to Israel. So people go astray, you know, why would we be surprised if our children go astray? If we go astray, you know, we want to keep faithful to God until the end. We want to leave a legacy of faithfulness to God following Gideon death, Abimelech proclaims himself as king, and then goes and kills all his 70 brothers. Abimelech lives out his father's desire to be king. You know, if you and I get sidetracked, you don't know where it will lead with others or your children. The youngest brother, Jotham, escaped and prophesied against his brother abimalek. It was his curse on his brother that becomes one of the legacies of Gideon through the bravery of his one remaining son, Jotham. Now Abimelech fights to set up himself as king. You know, here's the son who kills all of his brothers. Now he sets himself up to be king, and God returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Gideon, came upon them. Now, Abimelech dies at the hand of a woman who throws down a millstone that crushes his skull. So God repays Abimelech with death in the end for his evil. Now reflect with me for a minute some thoughts to consider. Stay the course in our aging years. Let's not get sidetracked. We trust God to lead and make the way clear. We live a life of dependence even in our advanced years, no time to slough off. Think through the downsides and the long range impact of your decisions. You know, we often think of the upsides of our decisions, think through the downsides and the long range impact of your decisions. We often think of the advantages of decisions when we make them, wherever we are in life, if I make this decision, what will happen? Do we consider the downsides of our decisions if I make this move, what will happen? How it affect my wife? How it affect my husband, how it affect my kids? How will affect people around me. Gideon is a good figure to learn from in those decisions. It was mentioned above that Gideon is included in the hall of faith in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 1132, in my own mind, I think sometimes I'm too quick to judge. While at times, Gideon show great faith, yet at other times, he was more cowardly and self centered, though he did not finish well, God blessed him and counted him worthy to be included in the Hall of Faith. Makes me think of the great mercies of God. None of us are perfect. Were it not for the mercies of God, none of us would be saved. God reached out and brought us in. Nevertheless, God calls us to live well and finish well in our aging years. Don't be like Gideon. Don't go astray in the latter years of your life. And the way we would do that is to keep growing, keep on the cutting edge of our faith in Christ, again, Romans, eight, those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. I don't think. God led Gideon to build an ephod which would lead his people astray. Be careful with what we do with our money. Be careful with how we invest our lives and keep investing them for Jesus and His glory. I close with that verse in Psalm 90, verse 12, so Teach us to number our days that we would present to you. O God a heart of wisdom. Is that what Gideon did? I don't think so. He didn't finish well, even though God used him in some great ways. Let's purpose for God to use us every day through the very end of our lives. God bless you to that end. You.